Course Descriptions

ECO 212 - Intermediate Accounting

(Spring)

ECO 213 - Cost Accounting

Study of allocation and utilization of resources. Emphasis on cost behavior, cost allocation, product costing, budgeting, decision-making and control activities related to job-order, process and activity-based costing (ABC) systems.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 211. 
Only two courses numbered 211-214 may count towards the Economics major.
Only one course numbered 211-214 may count towards the Economics minor.

(Fall)

ECO 214 - Finance

This course provides a foundation in the principles and tools of finance, which include financial analysis, the time value of money, capital budgeting and capital structure. It emphasizes an intuitive, logically rigorous understanding of the theory and practice of finance, illustrating concepts that are applicable to public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Ethical and societal issues related to these principles are examined.  

Only two courses numbered 211-214 may count towards the Economics major.
Only one course numbered 211-214 may count towards the Economics minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 211

ECO 219 - Game Theory and Strategic Behavior

Study of strategic situations in theory and practice. Course begins with the concept of Nash equilibrium and covers refinements of it, addressing ideas such as mixed strategies, preemption, wars of attrition, commitment, repeated games, and signaling.

Satisfies a Mathematical & Quantitative Thought requirement.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101 and Calculus I or equivalent.

ECO 220 - Economic Analysis of Health and Access to Care

Economic perspective on differences in health outcomes and health care utilization across the categories of income, wealth, education, gender and race.  Includes study of theories of time allocation, health production, health insurance and discrimination, and assessment of related empirical research and policies. 

Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101 or both Economics 122 and permission of the instructor. 
Recommended, but not required: Economics 105.

ECO 221 - Economic History of the United States

Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement. 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101.

ECO 224 - Labor Economics

Labor markets, unionization, unemployment, and public policy primarily in the setting of the United States.  Particular focus will be on inequality and discrimination in the labor market.

Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101.

ECO 225 - Public Sector Economics

Analysis of the role the public sector plays in a mixed economy.  Topics include public goods, externalities, tax policy, expenditure policy, budget deficits, and the national debt.  Includes proposals for tax welfare, and health care reforms. 
A student may not receive credit for both Economics 225 and Economics 325.  

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement. 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101.

ECO 226 - Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

Focuses on the application of economic tools to the evaluation of environmental amenities, the analysis of pollution control policies, the uses of renewable and nonrenewable resources, and the protection of biodiversity.  Examines the strengths and weaknesses of the economic approach to those issues.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement. 
Satisfies depth and breadth course requirement in the Social Science Track of the Environmental Studies major or interdisciplinary minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101 required; Calculus I or equivalent recommended.

ECO 227 - Economics of Gender Family

This course examines the changing role of gender in the labor market and the household. Topics to be studied include: the rise in females’ formal labor force participation during the second half of the twentieth century; gender differences in employment, occupation, and earnings; theoretical and empirical approaches to studying discrimination; and the interactions between market opportunities, government policies, and family formation (including fertility, marriage, divorce, and cohabitation).

Satisfies Gender and Sexuality major and minor requirement

Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101.

ECO 228 - Financial Economics

ECO 229 - Urban Economics

Role of economics in the development of modern cities. Topics include: the monocentric-city model, urban land values, crime, transportation, education, and taxation.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement. 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101.

ECO 231 - History of Economic Thought

Evolution of economic thought in a social-historical context, from the Mercantilists up to Keynes, with particular attention to the Classical, Marxian, Austrian, Neoclassical, Institutional, and Keynesian schools.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101.

ECO 232 - Economics of Migration

Types of migration, economic basis for migration, aggregate and distributional consequences on migrant sending and receiving countries, fiscal and other effects of migration, ‘brain-drain’ and ‘brain-gain’, remittances, migration policy.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement for International Studies.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101

ECO 234 - Latin American Economic Development

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.

Counts for the Latin American Studies major and minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101.

ECO 235 - Economics of South Asian Environmental Issues

The goal of this course is for students to learn about the economics of environmental issues in South Asia (defined here as Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). The economic tools will include externalities and consideration of common and open access goods. The issues discussed will be topical, and the students will get to choose a topic for their research project.

Satisfies depth and breadth course requirement in the Social Science track of the Environmental Studies major or interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies a Social Scientific Thought Requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101.

ECO 237 - Macroeconomics of Development

Why are some countries rich and others so poor? What are the commonalities across today’s low-income countries, and how are they dissimilar? Which policies can best move billions of people from abject poverty to development and prosperity? This course is about the huge differences in incomes and standards of living that separates the wealthy nations from the poor. We will explore the nature and meaning of development and its macroeconomic manifestations within the context of a major set of economic problems faced by developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Topics include economic growth and structural transformation; poverty and inequality; agricultural transformation and rural development; human capital; migration and urbanization; foreign aid; violence and armed conflict; and role of monetary policy and fiscal policy to foster macroeconomic stability and economic development.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satsifies Justice, Equality and Community requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101

ECO 280 - Economic Analysis of India’s Development

Students will engage in learning about the economic issues associated with the development of modern India as part of the Davidson College Semester in India Program.  Students will review introductory economics, read an economic analysis of India, and apply the lessons learned from their readings to the India they experience. 

Satisfies a requirement in the Economics major and minor.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought Ways of Knowing requirement.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101 (Introductory Economics).

ECO 286 - Economics of Education (=EDU 286)

(Cross-listed with EDU 286)
This course will examine questions about the American educational system from an economic and behavioral-economic perspective.  Is school funding better spent on merit pay for teachers or reducing class size?  Do charter schools help more students get to college?  Who benefits from free tuition policies in higher education?  We will learn about returns to educational investment, effects of educational inputs, teacher labor markets, school choice, and higher education finance and policy.  There will be an emphasis throughout on empirical tests of individual behavior and their implications for education policy.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies the 20-series Economics major course requirement.
Satifies a requirement in the Educational Studies minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101

ECO 288 - International Political Economy

This course encompasses the intersection of political and economic forces. It begins with the core concepts of balance of payments, international monetary theory, and international trade theory. The course has a particular emphasis on emerging markets in Latin America and S.E. Asia.  Among the questions we address: Why do currencies go “up” or “down,” and with what implications?  How do financial crises begin and spread?  Who gains from international trade, and how does it affect economic welfare?  The course will also cover topical issues in Latin American and Asian economies: the function and impact of the International Monetary Fund, income inequality, environmental protection, and the relationship between democracy, national security, and open markets.  In addition to using texts and selected readings, we will rely on several case studies and country-specific analysis to further our understanding of international political economy.  

Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101.

ECO 295 - Individual Research

Designed for the student who desires to pursue some special interest in economics. A research proposal must be approved in advance by the faculty member who supervises the student and determines the means of evaluation as well as the Department Chair.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101 and permission of the instructor.

ECO 316 - Computational Economics

Computational methods for building and solving models in the context of economics topics. Methods discussed include agent-based simulations to analyze complex adaptive systems, value function iteration to solve dynamic structural models, and miscellaneous estimation and optimizing techniques.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement for applied mathematics.
Counts as an elective in the Data Science interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 105 or permission of the instructor.

ECO 320 - Psychology and Economics

Incorporation of psychological insights into economic models, with emphasis on empirical evidence. Also known as behavioral economics. Analysis of how individuals depart from a standard economic model in three ways: 1) nonstandard preferences, such as procrastination, 2) nonstandard beliefs, such as overconfidence about one’s ability, and 3) nonstandard decision making, such as framing effects and the roles of social pressure and peer influences. Some class meetings will be held jointly with a corporate partner or startup, and a class project will apply behavioral economics principles to a real-world issue within the context of a design-thinking process.    

Satisfies the Social-Science requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 105 and Economics 202.

ECO 321 - Research Seminar in Public Choice Economics

Public Choice Economics is the application of economic methods to problems usually within the sphere of political science.  This research seminar is as much a vehicle for developing a student’s research skills as it is a valuable field of inquiry.  The students will actively engage with their peers in learning about Public Choice Economics, in developing a viable research proposal, and in conducting their own empirical research projects.  It is appropriate for either advanced economics-focused students with an interest political science or advanced political science-focused students with an interest in economics.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics focus: Economics 105 (Statistics), either Economics 202 (Intermediate Microeconomics) or Economics 203 (Intermediate Macroeconomics), and a Political Science course above 201.

Political Science focus: Political Science 201 (Methods and Statistics in Political Science), a Political Science course above 300, and Economics 101 (Introductory Economics).

ECO 323 - Industrial Organization

We often hear that perfect competition is the ideal market structure for an industry, but what if it isn’t?  When are there benefits to consumers from allowing two large companies to merge?  Are Microsoft and Google providing valuable technological innovations for society, or strategically capturing market share and profit for themselves?  

We study some frameworks for answering these and other questions, starting with a review of how market structure, firm behavior, and outcomes for consumers are related.  We examine the effects of various business strategies such as price discrimination, product differentiation, collusion, mergers, advertising, R&D and investment.  Finally, we discuss landmark antitrust court cases and apply theoretical frameworks to understand why different industries may be treated differently.

Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 202 required.

ECO 324 - Labor Economics

Labor markets, unionization, unemployment, and public policy primarily in the setting of the United States. (A student may not receive credit for both ECO 224 and ECO 324.)

Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 105 and Economics 202 or permission of the instructor.

ECO 325 - Public Sector Economics

Analysis of the role the public sector plays in a mixed economy.  Topics include public goods, externalities, tax policy, expenditure policy, budget deficits, and the national debt.  Includes proposals for tax welfare, and health care reforms. 
A student may not receive credit for both Economics 225 and Economics 325.  

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement. 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 202.

ECO 328 - Money and the Financial System

Term structure of interest rates, structure of financial markets, regulatory framework, asset demand theories, Federal Reserve system and operation of monetary policy.

Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 203.

ECO 329 - Sports Economics

Sports economics covers the major economic issues confronted in professional and major college sports. The course examines four topics in depth: (1) the structure of professional sports industry, (2) public finance issues surrounding stadium construction and team ownership in professional sports, (3) labor market issues in professional sports, and (4) the economics of amateur athletics (with a focus on the NCAA).

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 105 and Economics 202.

ECO 336 - Economic Growth

What sustains economic growth in the long run?  This question was the focus of Adam Smith’s 1776 masterpiece “The Wealth of Nations”.  Nobel laureate Robert Lucas famously said that “Once one starts to think about [questions of economic growth], it is hard to think about anything else.”  The purpose of this course is to explain and explore the modern theories of economic growth.  We will use  theoretical and empirical models and publicly available data to study the role of key components of economics growth such as: capital accumulation, including all new investments in land, physical equipment, and human resources through improvements in health, education, and job skills; population growth; technological progress; openness to trade and capital flow; institutions, culture, and geography; and environmental sustainability.

Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 203

ECO 337 - International Trade

Economic basis for international trade, determinants and consequences of trade flows, barriers to trade, and trade policy.

Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 202.

ECO 338 - International Finance

Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 203.

ECO 339 - Economics of Multinational Firms

Multinational firms with operations spanning national boundaries are some of the most powerful companies in the world. Why do some firms go global? What prevents others from internationalizing their operations? How do multinationals innovate? Do they benefit the countries where they operate? Answers to these questions will provide key insights about the world we live in, and we will use economics to examine these and other issues to learn how firms respond to the pressures of globalization and how the global presence of these firms affects the well-being of citizens in rich and poor countries.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 203

ECO 380 - Seminar in Economics (ECO 380-384)

Principal events affecting economic policy and behavior in the United States since colonial times. Emphasis on historical origins of contemporary American problems.

Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement. 

Satisfies Economics major and minor requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101

ECO 384 - Seminar

Instructor
Staff

Reading, research, papers, and discussion on selected topics in economics. Each faculty member announces in advance the particular topic or area of the seminar.

Prerequisites & Notes
 

Economics 202 or 203.  Spring 2022: Not open to those with credit for ECO 221.

ECO 385 - Forecasting

This course will build on students’ understanding of statistics and basic econometrics to develop further the empirical model building skills they have acquired previously. The course will provide an overview of classical and modern approaches to forecasting in business, economics, and finance. Topics include regression analysis, exponential smoothing and filtering, ARIMA models, modeling and forecasting trend and seasonality, evaluating and combining forecasts. Students will also write forecast reports and deliver oral presentations of their forecasts to classmates as well as learn how to critique constructively others’ reports and presentations.

Satisfies Applied Mathematics minor requirement.

Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement

Prerequisites & Notes
Prerequisite: ECO 105

ECO 395 - Individual Research

Designed for the major who desires to pursue some special interest in economics. A research proposal must be approved in advance by the faculty member who supervises the student and determines the means of evaluation as well as the Department Chair.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 202 or 203 or 205 and permission of the instructor.

ECO 494 - Honors Thesis Research

Independent research designed to formulate a written proposal for an honors thesis. The proposal will include a review of recent literature, development of a theoretical framework and research hypotheses, and a discussion of your empirical estimation approach and available data.  An oral defense of the written proposal is required.  Graded on a Pass/Fail basis.

Not for major or minor credit in Economics.

Prerequisites & Notes
Successful completion of Economics 202, 203, and 205 are prerequisites for registering for the course. Under exceptional circumstance, following a student request, the course instructor for Eco. 494 may waive one of these requirements.

ECO 495 - Senior Session

Prerequisites & Notes:
Successful completion of Economics 202, 203, and 205 are prerequisites for registering for the course. Under exceptional circumstance, following a student request, the Chair of the Department may waive one of these requirements.

FALL 2021 SENIOR SEMINAR

Section 0: “Great” Books in Economics
Instructor: Jha

This course will survey the great thinkers, their seminal ideas, and the great texts of economic thought in the history of the discipline. Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” changed the world, with a basic trinity of individual prerogatives: self-interest division of labor, and freedom of trade. But what, according to Smith, were the limits of reason and rationality? What were Keynes’s views on ‘animal spirits’, the spontaneous optimism rather than mathematical speculation, that drove human action? How did Marx distinguish between fixed or constant drives that are integral to human nature and the relative appetites that are rooted in particular social structures and modes of production? How did Polanyi contrast rational self-interested behavior in the market society of early modern Western Europe with socially motivated behavior in the communitarian patterns of organization in traditional societies? The objective of this course is to conduct a close study of select “great texts” in economics, focusing on classics in economic thought supplemented with contemporary analyses.

SPRING 2022 SENIOR SEMINAR

Section A: Climate Change and COVID-19
Instructor: Martin

Two of the most pressing issues facing college-aged youth today are climate change and COVID-19.  The focus of this seminar is a crucial one for policy analysts: are there useful parallels and/or intersections between potential responses to those two problems?  After discussing some economic analyses of the two issues separately so you can learn the relevant basic concepts, we as a group will explore the recently developing literature that looks at possible parallels and intersections.  The course will conclude with each of us (including Dr. Martin) presenting an answer to an individually developed question related to the focal question for the class.

Section B: Topics in Public Policy
Instructor: Cools

Economic analysis can help inform public policies. This class will examine policy topics such as the earned income tax credit, fiscal stimulus, and voting systems. Both economic theory and empirical analysis will be used to explore the benefits and costs of different policies. Special attention will be given to methods used establish causality.

Section C: “Great” Books in Economics
Instructor: Jha

This course will survey the great thinkers, their seminal ideas, and the great texts of economic thought in the history of the discipline. Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” changed the world, with a basic trinity of individual prerogatives: self-interest division of labor, and freedom of trade. But what, according to Smith, were the limits of reason and rationality? What were Keynes’s views on ‘animal spirits’, the spontaneous optimism rather than mathematical speculation, that drove human action? How did Marx distinguish between fixed or constant drives that are integral to human nature and the relative appetites that are rooted in particular social structures and modes of production? How did Polanyi contrast rational self-interested behavior in the market society of early modern Western Europe with socially motivated behavior in the communitarian patterns of organization in traditional societies? The objective of this course is to conduct a close study of select “great texts” in economics, focusing on classics in economic thought supplemented with contemporary analyses.

Section D: Milestones in Economic Thought
Instructor: Kumar

Advances in economic thought have emerged not as inevitable products of preceding orthodoxies but from highly contested and intensely debated narratives rooted in the social realities of the times. We study the evolution of economic ideas by inquiring into the historical-social-political contexts of key advances - milestones - in the making of modern economics. Tumultuous intellectual battles were lost and won as the Physiocrats rebelled against Mercantilism and inspired Adam Smith and Classicalism, as the Classicals confronted challenges from Marxism and Socialism, and as Neoclassicalism coopted or deflected these challenges. Thus we examine how, from the ideas and times of the great thinkers, emerged milestones in economic thought that shaped the world.

Section E: Eco Foreign Direct Investment
Instructor: Stroup

Multinational firms with operations spanning national boundaries are some of the most powerful companies in the world. Why do some firms go global? What prevents others from internationalizing their operations? How do multinationals innovate? Do they benefit the countries where they operate? Answers to these questions will help us understand the world we live in, and we will use economics to examine these and other issues to learn how firms respond to the pressures of globalization and how the global presence of these firms affects our well-being.

Section H: Honors Thesis
Instructor: Foley

Independent research designed to formulate a written proposal for an honors thesis. The proposal will include a review of recent literature, development of a theoretical framework and research hypotheses, and a discussion of your empirical estimation approach and available data.  An oral defense of the written proposal is required.  Graded on a Pass/Fail basis. Students taking ECO 495 in the Fall who also pass their oral defense are eligible to register for ECO 495H in the Spring.

COM 210 - Dialogues on Race and Racism

This course is based on the intergroup dialogue model where two facilitators of differing social identity groups encourage dialogue among class members about persistent social issues and conflicts related to race, racism, and its intersections with other social identities such as class, gender, sexual orientation, religion and immigration/migration background.  The intergroup dialogue approach to teaching about race and racism in the United States is pedagogically unique. The class is balanced with approximately half of the students self-identifying as White and the other half identifying as Students of Color or racial minorities in the United States and at Davidson College. Classroom diversity, balance and size is critical for building the trust and safety necessary for a racially diverse class to deeply engage the topic of race and multicultural education as a practice. Through interactive activities, in-class dialogues, course readings, and self-reflective writing assignments, students will learn about important issues and perspectives facing the participating populations on campus and in the United States. This course is by permission only and a pre-registration survey must be completed before the instructors determine the final class roster.

Satisfies a requirement in the Communication Studies major and interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
This course is by permission only. A pre-registration survey must be completed before the instructors determine the final class roster. To take this survey, navigate to this link: https://davidsonedu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5ok6O8reW0kfjpj. Direct any questions or problems to Trent Foley, trfoley@davidson.edu. You will be notified via email whether you have been admitted to the class on or just after the date that WebTree closes.

EDU 121 - Foundations of American Education: Historical & Philosophical Perspectives

Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
(Fall and Spring)

EDU 131 - The Afterlife of School Segregation

This course is about the everyday ways Black students and educators suffer in schools.  Despite the end of legal segregation of schooling in the United States, Black students and educators remain racialized, dehumanized, criminalized and hypersexualized in educational spaces from hallways to classrooms to communities.  But there’s more to the story:  Black students and educators also resist, refuse, and reimagine the routine and enduring practices of schooling that cause Black suffering, melancholy and indignities in schooling.  While we will explore an Afropessimist view of schooling, we will also examine black educational fugitive spaces as spaces of radical possibility.  The course is designed as a reading seminar that prepares students to create a critical intervention that grows out of complicated conversations, personal experiences and alternative research methodologies in educational spaces.

Satifies Africana Studies major requirement
Satisfies Educational Studies minor requirement.
Satifies Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies Justice, Equality and Community requirement

EDU 141 - Introduction to Philosophy of Education

A study of classic and contemporary documents in Philosophy of Education. Includes readings, discussions, and analyses of approximately twenty different philosophers from the fifth century BCE to the twenty-first century.

Satisfies Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

EDU 151 - Introduction to Educational Technology

This course is an introduction into the use of educational technology with an emphasis on online teaching. We will cover topics such as best practices in content creation, assessment in an online environment, accessibility factors, limitations of online teaching, and the evaluation of popular online platforms. Students will design and create their own online lessons with hardware and software tools.

Satisfies Educational Studies minor requirement.
Satisfies Digital Studies Interdisciplinary Minor requirement.

EDU 200 - Introduction to Research Methods for Education

This course is designed to develop students as effective consumers of educational research and introduce them to the theory and practice of social science research in education. Students will gain a broad understanding of educational inquiry, thinking about the scientific method with applications for social science research, and understanding the structures and types of research projects. Students will learn how to conduct experiments, design surveys, undertake field research, and examine existing quantitative data.

EDU 208 - Comparative and International Education

This course introduces students to the comparative study of educational institutions and cultures in India, Chile, the UAE, China, Northern Ireland, and the United States.  We will examine a number of issues, including but not limited to:  The role of NGOS and international organizations, educational reform efforts, colonialism and empire, educational access, attainment, and success around the world. Students will write a research paper, in addition to reviews and class assignments.

EDU 221 - Schools and Society (=SOC 221)

Satisfies a requirement in the Communication Studies interdisciplinary major and minor.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement. 
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

EDU 241 - Child Development (= PSY 241)

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement. 
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Psychology 101. (Fall)

EDU 242 - Educational Psychology (= PSY 242)

Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
 

EDU 243 - Adolescent Development (= PSY 243)

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Psychology 101

EDU 250 - Multicultural Education

This course examines the ways in which schools and society in the United States engage with diverse individuals and groups, as well as how obstacles to ever-increasing multiculturalism are rooted in behaviors, assumptions, values, thinking and communication styles.  The course will be taught using the intergroup dialogue model where two facilitators of differing social identity groups encourage dialogue among students about persistent social issues and conflicts related to race, racism, and the intersections of class, gender, sexual orientation, religion and immigration/migration background.  The intergroup dialogue approach to teaching multicultural education is pedagogically unique.  The class is balanced with approximately half of the students self-identifying as White and the other half identifying as Students of Color or racial minorities in the United States and at Davidson College.

Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement. 

Prerequisites & Notes

 

EDU 255 - Educational Linguistics (=ENG 255)

This course will introduce students to fundamental concepts in linguistics and tools for analyzing language in school-based and other instructional settings. Topics will include the structure of human languages, the development of communication, home-school literacy connections, classroom discourse, language diversity in education, language teaching and learning, academic literacy, and educational language policy. Students will complete problem sets, a short analytical paper, and a final research project.

EDU 260 - Oppression and Education (=SOC 260)

This course examines various manifestations of oppression in the United States and the questions they raise about inequality and social justice within educational institutions.  We will apply methods of critical analysis drawn from anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and psychology to an examination of social issues in the United States educational system.  We will examine education as a central site of conflict over the gap between the United States’ egalitarian mission and its unequal structure, processes, and outcomes.  Students will rethink contemporary solutions to social diversity in education, develop a social justice framework which emphasizes inequality, and design an institutional ethnographic project as a critical intervention in schools and society.

Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
Not open to students with credit for EDU 210 or EDU 250.

EDU 262 - Schooling Pandemics

COVID-19 was not the first pandemic. It will not be the last. Colleges and schools - typically slow-moving, conservative institutions - had to rapidly respond to the crisis. What were the effects of these transitions on education and public health? This seminar course draws on this question not just for the COVID-19 pandemic, but historical public health crises as well. The course will examine how the medieval universities (Cambridge, Oxford, Coimbra, Bologna, etc) responded to outbreaks of the plague. Students will learn how schools in the 1920s-1940s served as a springboard for mass vaccination against Polio and examine the ways in which  K-12 schools respond to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Students will write a case study paper using historiographical and social-science methods as the final product for the course.

Satisfies Educational Studies Interdisciplinary major and minor requirement.
 

EDU 270 - Democracy and Education

Democracy and Education examines philosophical and theoretical positions which contend that education is a public good and is essential to the cultivation of a democratic civil society. Through critical analysis and scrutiny, students investigate the notion that public schooling in the United States should be based on principles of equitable access and that every individual has a right to educational opportunities which are just, fair, and democratic.  

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

EDU 280 - Introduction to Educational Policy

This course is designed to introduce students to major issues in U.S. K-12 education policy including those related to school accountability and other market-based reforms, school finance, school desegregation, teacher labor markets, and curriculum and instruction. Students will build an understanding of the disciplinary frameworks of education policy analysis and learn the methodological tools, approaches, and concepts researchers use to evaluate policy and shape policy debates. Students will also engage with the politics of education policy through an examination of key actors and institutions that influence adoption and implementation at the local, state, and federal levels. This course will offer a variety of opportunities for students to analyze current policy issues through original briefs, research, and translation of their findings to a broader audience.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies a major requirement in the CIS major in Educational Studies and Public Policy Studies.

Satisfies an elective in the Political Science major. 
Satisfies a minor requirement in Educational Studies.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement

EDU 286 - Economics of Education (=ECO 286)

(Cross-listed with ECO 286)
This course will examine questions about the American educational system from an economic and behavioral-economic perspective.  Is school funding better spent on merit pay for teachers or reducing class size?  Do charter schools help more students get to college?  Who benefits from free tuition policies in higher education?  We will learn about returns to educational investment, effects of educational inputs, teacher labor markets, school choice, and higher education finance and policy.  There will be an emphasis throughout on empirical tests of individual behavior and their implications for education policy.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies the 20-series Economics major course requirement.
Satisfies a requirement in the Educational Studies minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
Economics 101.

EDU 290 - Oral History: Problems, Perspectives, & Possibilities (=SOC 290/AFR 290)

In this hands-on methods course, students will build interdisciplinary research skills focused on the theory and practice of oral history.  We will explore the theories, methods, and debates surrounding one of the oldest research tools: oral testimony.  Students will learn to critically evaluate oral sources and use oral histories in conjunction with other forms of research.  Students will engage with the practical aspects of oral history by completing and transcribing two oral history interviews.  In addition, students will gain a sophisticated understanding of individual and collective memory and the questions that both raise for writing oral history.  Each student will participate in a class oral history project.

Satisfies a major requirement in Africana Studies
Satisfies a major requirement in Sociology
Satisfies a major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies
Satisfies a major requirement in CIS Educational Studies
Satisfies a minor requirement in Educational Studies
Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement

EDU 291 - Data in Education

Educational data and quantitative data analyses have come to play a powerful role in the way we govern our schools. In this course, students will learn to be critical consumers and skilled producers of such analyses. In the applied portion of this class, students will learn data management, analysis, and visualization strategies by working with real data gathered in educational settings to answer research questions of policy and practical interest.

Satisfies a requirement in the Educational Studies minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Digital Studies interdisciplinary minor.
Counts as an elective in the Data Science interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies a Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement.

EDU 292 - Theory of Sports Coaching

This course provides an overview of academic theory essential to understanding competitive sports coaching in secondary schools and colleges. The student will evaluate, apply, and synthesize current theoretical perspectives and research in coaching sports. Topics include coaching philosophy, communication, pedagogy, skill development, and team management.

Satisfies a minor requirement in Educational Studies.

EDU 300 - Special Topics: Politics of Education

The United States is constantly stalled in a never-ending debate over the role of governments in schools, colleges, and universities. This course will explore that debate by examining the political dimensions of the major educational issues of our time including, but not limited to, the school choice movement, gun violence in schools, sexual assault on university campuses, school desegregation, and policies related to college affordability. The course will draw on methodologies from political science and economics and will focus on power dynamics and political action in education and society. In addition to traditional writing assignments and assessments, students will produce a white paper for a state or local legislator, non-profit organization, or other policy-related client on an educational policy issue of interest.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.  

Satisfies an elective in the Political Science major. 

EDU 301 - Independent Study in Education

EDU 305 - Critical Issues in Higher Education

This seminar course is designed to give students an insight into the theory and practice of postsecondary education. Students who take this course will be exposed to various topics in higher education including, but not limited to the development of the American university, social theory and the purposes of higher education, higher education in the modern era, the role of government in postsecondary education, privatization and for-profit education, religion, gender, race, Greek life, college athletics and free speech. By the end of the course, students should have both a broad understanding of the American higher education landscape and a deep understanding of a major issue in the field.

Satisfies a requirement in the Social and Cultural Studies category of the Educational Studies minor.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

EDU 310 - The Afterlife of School Segregation (= AFR 310)

This course is about the everyday ways Black students and educators suffer in schools.  Despite the end of legal segregation of schooling in the United States, Black students and educators remain racialized, dehumanized, criminalized and hypersexualized in educational spaces from hallways to classrooms to communities.  But there’s more to the story:  Black students and educators also resist, refuse, and reimagine the routine and enduring practices of schooling that cause Black suffering, melancholy and indignities in schooling.  While we will explore an Afropessimist view of schooling, we will also examine black educational fugitive spaces as spaces of radical possibility.  The course is designed as a reading seminar that prepares students to create a critical intervention that grows out of complicated conversations, personal experiences and alternative research methodologies in educational spaces

Satisfies Africana Studies major requirement
Satisfies Educational Studies minor requirement
Satisfies social/cultural and politics/ed policy requirement in Educational Studies major.
Meets the Social-Scientific Thought requirement
Meets the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement

EDU 320 - Growing up Jim Crow (= AFR 320, =SOC 320)

Examines how a generation learned race and racism in the Age of Jim Crow. Through multiple and intersecting lenses, students will examine texts, such as oral histories, literary narratives, and visual representations of various topics.  Topics will include Jim Crow schooling, white supremacy, disenfranchisement, lynching, rape, resistance, interracial harmony, and desegregation.

Satisfies a requirement in the Sociology major.
Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: North America).
Satisfies a requirement in the Educational Studies minor.
Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

EDU 330 - Sociology of Education (=SOC 330)

(Cross-listed as SOC 330.) An introduction to the sociological study of education in the United States, including an examination of the school as an organization within a larger environment. Explores the link between schools and social stratification by analyzing the mutually generative functions of schools and considers how processes within schools can lead to different outcomes for stakeholders.

Provides major credit in Sociology.
Satisfies a requirement in the Communication Studies interdisciplinary major and minor.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
(Fall)

EDU 340 - Education in African American Society (=SOC 340)

EDU 350 - Latino(a) Education in the United States

This course will examine the schooling experiences and educational attainment of Latinos & Latinas in the United States.  We will explore the impact of culture, gender, class, and immigration on Latino/a educational experiences, as well as the impact structures and settings, activism and advocacy, and politics and economics can have on educational attainment.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

EDU 351 - Educational Biography

This seminar prepares students to write an intellectual biography of a major figure in the history and practice of education in the United States.  The course will start with a simple question:  What is educational biography?  Students will read and analyze several educational biographies and, eventually, write their own.  The goal of the course is to write a final seminar paper that will inform the general public about major educational thinkers and practitioners who have made significant contributions to our society.

Satisfies a requirement in the Educational Studies minor (Historical & Philosophical Foundations category).
Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
 

EDU 360 - Second Language Acquisition

This course provides an introduction to second language acquisition theories and research, exploring the limits and possibilities of instructed and natural contexts. Topics include the nature of language, the role of the native language, second language acquisition universals, theoretical and pedagogical approaches, nonlanguage influences, instructed second language learning, and linguistic data analysis. Students will engage in critical discussions of the readings and observations of foreign/second language classes, and either produce a research-based instructional intervention or linguistic fieldwork analysis.

Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students must have fulfilled Davidson’s foreign language requirement or its equivalent before enrolling in the course.

EDU 361 - Bilingualism, literacy and schooling

In this community-based learning course, students will devote time inside of class and in the local community to scholarly research and evidence-based practices for supporting the literacy development of immigrant school-aged children. Students will learn about the experiences of emergent bilinguals in US public education, research on literacy in second-language learners, and grassroots reading campaigns to raise the academic achievement of underserved students. During fall 2021, students enrolled in the course will be trained as highly qualified literacy tutors through a special partnership between Educational Studies and the Augustine Literacy Project.

Satisfies a minor requirement in Educational Studies
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement
Satisfies the Cultural diversity requirement

Prerequisites & Notes
Suitable for Davidson students interested in elementary education, literacy, immigrant education, community engagement, and education policy.

EDU 365 - Language Policy and Planning

Students will learn how to evaluate and make informed decisions about educational language policy and practices. We will begin the course with a macro focus on historical and current educational language policies and frameworks in the United States. Students will compare these to those elsewhere by investigating and leading a class discussion on the language situation in and policies of a country or region of their choice. During the second part of the course, we delve into bilingual education planning, including language curricula and instruction, teacher preparation, administrative support, and material resources needed to design successful programs.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

EDU 370 - War, Peace, & Education

War, Peace, and Education confronts the complex relationship most Americans have with war by detecting components of the hidden curriculum in schools that serve to endorse war.  The course will focus on five such components:  masculinity and hero worship, patriotism, hatred, religion’s frequent support of war, and war as an arena for supplying existential meaning.

Satisfies the Philosophical & Religious Perspectives requirement

EDU 371 - Critical Race Theory (=AFR 371, =SOC 371)

This course introduces students to the development of critical race theory as a specific theoretical framework to explain or to investigate how race and racism are organized and operate within the United States.  The course will have a sociological focus with emphasis on critical race scholarship that includes, but is not limited to, an analysis of double consciousness, colorblindness, intersectionality, whiteness as property, racial microaggressions, and structures of power.  Students will also explore central tenets and key writings advanced in the 1990s primarily by African American, Latino/a, and Asian American scholars in law, education, and public policy.  The course is both reading intensive and extensive with a major writing assignment that addresses a theoretical problem that grows out of the course topics and discussions. 

Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: North America).
Satisfies a requirement in the Sociology major.
Satisfies a minor requirement in Educational Studies.
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.

EDU 380 - Evaluating Educational Innovations for Youth

This course will survey selected social innovations aimed at improving social and educational outcomes for youth, and introduce students to theoretical and empirical approaches to assessing the effectiveness of innovations. Following the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, a social innovation is defined as “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than present solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.”  Through the course, students will understand the evaluative needs of different stages of innovation, learn to connect appropriate research designs, and become critical consumers of research that examines social and educational innovation. Course participants will also have the opportunity to interact with local and national social entrepreneurs through a series of in-person and remote guest lectures. In addition, students will engage in intensive case study of select social innovations, and design an evaluation plan for a new or existing innovation.

Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies a major requirement in the CIS major Educational Studies & Public Policy Studies.
Satisfies a minor requirement in Educational Studies.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

EDU 385 - Race, Families, and Inequality

The family that you’re born into profoundly shapes your life chances. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from sociology, political science, and psychology we will learn how family background and other non-school factors shape unequal educational experiences and outcomes in K-12 and beyond. We will trace the historical development of programs, policies, and reform efforts that seek to narrow educational inequality by centering families and communities. We will also evaluate the successes and failures of those initiatives while re-imagining best practices for family and community engagement.

Satisfies Educational Studies major and minor requirement.
Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

EDU 395 - Independent Study in Education

Independent Study in Education

EDU 400 - Dir Field Placement - Education

ENG 110 - Course list for Introduction to Literature

Spring 2022

ENG 110 Contemporary American Fiction
Instructor
Sample

This course in 21st century American fiction will concentrate on new novels, short stories, and graphic narratives. 

The study of fiction includes the story itself as well as how the story is told; as a result, the work of “Contemporary American Fiction” will also concentrate upon formal analysis using literary terminology. Access to many of the writers will be afforded: the class will either meet in person or videoconference with many of the authors whose works are read. Two essays, one digital project, and some shorter writing exercises will be required; a midterm and final can be expected.

Satisfies a major requirement in English
Satisfies a CIS major requirement in Global Literary Theory
Satisfies a minor requirement in English
Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Global Literary Theory
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement

ENG 110 Graphic Med: Drawing Disability
Instructor
Fox

Why is the graphic novel literary? And why has it become an immensely popular site for the representation of illness, disability, and medicine?  In this Introduction to Literature class, we’ll start with the premise that the unique intersection of word, color, image, text, and juxtaposition offered by the graphic novel offers authors singular opportunities for storytelling. We will further ask: what do comics, zines, and graphic novels have to teach us about our varied kinds of embodiment, particularly about disabled bodies? We will consider how these visual texts teach us about how bodies engage with the social and medical contexts surrounding them. Encompassing everything from bipolar disorder to cancer, depression to HIV/AIDS, deafness to end-of-life issues, possible course works may include Rx, Cancer Vixen, Stitches, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, and Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michaelangelo, and Me.  Students will also make their own comic!

Satisfies a requirement in the Communication Studies interdisciplinary major and minor.
Satisfies a Public Health Minor Requirement
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement
Satisfies a major requirement in English
Satisfies a minor requirement in English

ENG 110 Literature & Medicine
Instructor
Vaz

Science and medicine have indelibly influenced how we understand and respond to the physical and mental state of being human.  We will consider how an appreciation of literary texts and the questions they broach give us a different insight into the human condition and affect our awareness of health, addiction, illness, disease, suffering, recovery, and death.  In doing so, we will also pay close attention to the cultural coding of these issues, as we examine how gender, class, race, sexual orientation, or other cultural biases color our perceptions of health, disease, suffering and death.

Satisfies the Public Health Interdisciplinary Minor

Fall 2021

ENG 110 Video Game Talk
Instructor
Jung

In this course, we will consider audio-visual-interactive media known as video games as primary texts to explore the art of storytelling, poetry, and essay. Students will be required to analyze themes, motifs, and the intersection between mechanics and contents of this relatively new media, which has quickly matured into a major form of human expression. Some, but not all, of the video games we will talk about include: Legend of Zelda series, Dark Souls, Red Dead Redemption II, God of War, Disco Elysium, Undertale, Kentucky Route Zero, and others. Furthermore, the class will engage in discussing the culture surrounding video games by reading and watching video game journalism and criticism. We will also read relevant texts from older literary forms to explore how they have influenced the art of video games. For example: what is the thematic connection between Hidetaka Miyazaki’s fragmentary storytelling in Dark Souls and T.S. Eliot’s fragmented poetry in The Waste Land? Throughout the course, students will also get a chance to critically and creatively express their experiences playing video games.

Satisfies a major requirement in English
Satisfies a CIS major requirement in Global Literary Theory
Satisfies a minor requirement in English
Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Global Literary Theory
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement

OTHER TOPICS (not offered in current academic year):

ENG 110 Literary Monsters
Instructor
Ingram

This course examines monsters in widely varied texts.  Some are influential classics, such as Beowulf, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Some are recent works by prominent writers, such as Octavia Butler’s Fledgling, Colson Whitehead’s Zone One, and short fiction by Margaret Atwood and Karen Russell.  Some are bestsellers, such as Stephen King’s The Outsider; films, such as Nosferatu and Night of the Living Dead; and television shows, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Penny Dreadful.  One is a graphic novel with a topic and a title to suit this course, Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing Is Monsters.  

Each text will be contextualized, so that students will discuss each monster as a response to distinct fears.  Students will also discuss the unstable place of monsters in cultural history, so essential to ancient and medieval texts at the core of the canon, yet later associated with popular entertainment.  Like all who survive encounters with monsters, the students of this section will come away with new questions and new ways of reading.

ENG 110 Shakespeare & Sports
Instructor
Lewis

Contemporary sports and Elizabethan theater have much in common. Both present spectacles, before a rowdy audience, in an arena. Both involve rehersal and scripted performance. Both require guides, whether a director or a coach. Both create rivalry, whether between teams or acting companies. Most important, both center on stories that thrive on the essential, exhilarating, and painful human experience. Like Shakespeare’s plays, sports history yields instances of extraordinary heroism and of heart-breaking mistakes. Real athletes find reflection in many of Shakespeare’s best known characters. Take, for instance, Dale Earrnhardt, Jr., whose larger-than-life father haunts him as King Hamlet’s ghost haunts his son. Andre Agassi’s second chance at tennis recalls The Tempest’s Prospero, who is exiled from and returns to dominate another court. This class explores how such moments and people in sports find reflection in Shakespeare’s works.

ENG110 - Introduction to Comedy
Instructor
Ingram

This course offers an overview of the comic tradition in English, from the Middle Ages to the present, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales to Arrested Development.  Although humor will be a recurring feature of some texts and of most class meetings, this course traces how comedies respond to inescapable challenges of human life:  social and political structures as apparent obstacles to the desires of individuals; the body and its failings, to the point of death; art, particularly comedy, as a reassuring (or maybe deceptive) refuge of happy endings that can seem elusive in life.  Different eras respond differently to those challenges, so the course offers a broad survey of literary and cultural history.  Over the semester, students and professor alike will look for comedy in surprising places, including in the form of the course itself, certain to end happily, before it has even begun.

ENG 110 - Media & Community
Instructor
Churchill
 
From Walt Whitman’s broad embrace of American readers in the 1860s to the digital social networks of today, this course examines how various media form communities of readers and writers. We will investigate how lyric poetry creates one kind of intimacy between author and reader, how blogs establish another, and how the NBC television comedy Community builds its own cult following. Davidson College meets Greendale Community College in a course that teaches you how to read, analyze, and respond critically and creatively to various forms of media. 

Satisfies a Media & Community topic requirement of the Digital Studies interdisciplinary minor.

ENG 110 Growing Up in America
Instructor
S. Campbell

In this course, we will consider young adult fiction both from various critical perspectives and within various readerly contexts.  Over the semester, we will:

• Review a brief history of the genre from 1860 to 2000;
• Explore shifting perceptions of gender, sexuality, and coming of age in the United States;
• Discuss in what ways ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic status impact expectations about maturation;
• Consider how reviews of and responses to young adult texts reflect contemporaneous assumptions about the purposes of literature.

Satisfies an elective requirement in the English major.
Satisfies an elective credit in the Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor.
Satisfies a Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric distribution requirement.

ENG 110 Introduction to Environmental Literature (=ENV 210)
Instructor
Merrill

(Cross-listed as Environmental Studies 210.)  An introduction to global environmental literature.  We’ll focus primarily on short fiction, novels, and non-fiction prose.  The course will introduce students to environmental justice issues as well as contemporary trends in global literature.  Literary and environmental topics include toxicity, waste, food, inequality, the idea of “wilderness,” and activism.  No prior experience studying literature is required.

Satisfies depth or breadth course requirement in Humanities Track of the Environmental Studies major or interdisciplinary minor

ENG 110 Literature & Medicine
Instructor
Vaz

Science and medicine have indelibly influenced how we understand and respond to the physical and mental state of being human.  We will consider how an appreciation of literary texts and the questions they broach give us a different insight into the human condition and affect our awareness of health, addiction, illness, disease, suffering, recovery, and death.  In doing so, we will also pay close attention to the cultural coding of these issues, as we examine how gender, class, race, sexual orientation, or other cultural biases color our perceptions of health, disease, suffering and death.

Satisfies the Public Health Interdisciplinary Minor

ENG 115 - The Art, Science, and Fascination of Fragrance

Description: This is a new kind of course, built bottom-up from the kinds of curiosity about the sense of smell expressed by students and professors in a liberal arts college. Not all of these questions have answers, but this course strives to give you  the feeling that you are looking in the right direction as you consider the  fascination of fragrance, the science of scent, and the passion and profit of perfume.  You and professors from Art History, Biology, Chemistry, Classics, Economics, English, Environmental Studies, and Psychology will think together and think out loud about what would be the best  next step  in formalizing your own curiosity about olfaction.  So the course is really a series of investigations into the art, biology, chemistry economics, history, and psychology of fragrances.

Organizing Questions: How exactly does the sense of smell work?  Why do we have considerable numbers of olfactory receptors yet a rather small vocabulary for describing smells?  Did the sense of smell shape the human face? Are perfumes aphrodisiacs? Why are aphrodisiacs named after Aphrodite? What are nectar and ambrosia in Homer’s epics? Do fragrances alter moods?   What makes  tangerine fragrance as effective as Valium in lowering stress? Can fragrances really bring back memories?  What role do fragrances play in religious rituals? Why do skins react differently to the same perfume? How did the ancients make/use/store perfumes? Why myrrh and frankincense?  Are there always smells in the air?  Beyond inviting pollinators, of what use are fragrances to fragrant plants? How come mirror image molecules smell so different? How come some fragrances last long on me and some don’t? What is the link between fragrance and flavor? What is the Spice Road and how did it come about?  If I like perfume  X, what other perfumes might I like? Why?   How do people lose their sense of smell? Is losing one’s sense of smell predictive of certain diseases? How do dogs smell cancer? Why do men seem to pay less attention to smells than women do? Are women really 1000 times more sensitive to musk than men are?  Is there a relation between odor and morality? Can human behavior be subliminally manipulated by odors? Does aromatherapy work? Why do I love some fragrances and hate others?  How come old people’s perfumes smell so strong? Is it true that animal urine is used in perfumery? Is there really a smell of fear? Are organic perfumes better than synthetic ones? Why is there the persistent belief in human pheromones? What exactly are notes in a fragrance? How many different smells can a human nose distinguish? How big is the fragrance industry?  What does it take to succeed in it?  What’s up with celebrity perfumes? What perfumes did Cleopatra use? In what organs do human have odor receptors?  

Texts:  Rachel Herz,  The Scent of Desire;   Mandy Aftel, Essence and Alchemy:  A Natural History of Perfume;   Patrick Susskind, Perfume;  Scent of a Woman; Essays on the art, history, chemistry, biology, psychology, and economics of fragrance; Poems and stories on fragrance  themes.

ENG 116 - Gesture

From our non-verbal cues in daily conversation to our postures, gaits, facial expressions, and movements, gesture plays a significant role in our daily communications with one another. Whether we are using sign language or watching the unfolding of a graceful développé in ballet, we are tuned in to the ways in which our gestures communicate meaning. The study of gesture is a multidisciplinary effort, as scholars draw on fields as diverse as psychoanalysis, performance studies, dance, neuroscience, anthropology, linguistics, behavioral science, and literary analysis. This course will examine the interpenetrations of gesture with both speech and thought in a series of cultural artifacts, ranging from the silent film comedy of Buster Keaton in The General (1926) and the fiction of Nathanael West and Zadie Smith, to the YouTube videos of Chris Crocker (“Leave Britney Alone!”) and the documentaries Paris is Burning (1990) and Rize (2005). What does it mean to study gesture in an interdisciplinary way? What questions do theorists of gesture ask of the literary and cultural artifacts they study?  How do gestures amplify our understanding of each other and of literary characters and documentary subjects? Rooted in close reading and analysis, this class will ask students to consider how our movements create meaning and what those meanings suggest about our culture(s) and the other cultures under consideration in the course.


 

ENG 201 - Intro to the Essay

Are you interested in changing minds with your words? Are you interested in changing your own mind with your own words? In this course, we will study the art of essay with a focus on the technique of persuasion. The term essay will be broadly defined to include works from many different genres, because “essaying” at its core tracks how your mind transforms as it collides against and combines with a new idea, memory, or emotion.

Somewhat ominously, we will specifically examine the techniques of making a persuasive argument that can lead people to do things that go against their best interests. The great danger of such persuasion is that often its emotional appeals can blind us to the facts of the argument and lead us down to darker paths of our humanity. When we are trying to win a war of words, or a war of ideas, do we stay honest? Or do we lie, cheat, and steal to gain one more person on our side? What is involved in winning the argument for the sake of winning? If so, then what is the cost we pay for such extreme measures? And how are such persuasive techniques used in writing essays? Knowing these dark arts will help us protect ourselves from them. One way of thinking about this course is to think of it as a Defense Against the Dark Arts. 

Our readings and discussions will range from classics to contemporary culture. The course will be in part a tour through literary history, we will learn analyze classic essays, and we will learn to write essays of our own through creative writing workshops. George Orwell’s famous quote will be one of our guiding lights throughout the semester: “Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

Satifies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.

ENG 202 - Introduction to Creative Writing

English 202 introduces students to the art and craft of writing short fiction and poetry of all varieites including “slam”.  Creativity is essential, as is dedication to writing, reading, and engaging in productive discussions of each other’s work.

ENG 203 - Introduction to Writing Poetry

ENG 204 - Introduction to Writing Fiction

Instructor 
Flanagan, Parker

Introduction to Fiction Writing is a workshop-based course in the techniques of storytelling and narrative concepts. Through peer critique and exercises, students learn in hands-on fashion the art of fiction writing. 

Instructor
Flanagan

ENG 204 teaches students to become proud writers through usage of the geographies of their wonderful imaginations. In intensive individual and workshop sessions, students are taught the basics of creative writing and learn how to imagine lives beyond their own.

ENG 205 - Screenwriting

This course is a workshop, where virtually everything will be based upon, work from, and be inspired by, the writing that you and others in your class accomplish. The course is based on learning the discipline and rigors of writing daily, creating and listening to dialogue, and making individual scenes work.

Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

ENG 211 - Filmmaking

This course is a workshop, where virtually everything will be based upon, work from, and be inspired by, the films you and others in your class accomplish. The course is based on learning the discipline and rigors of thinking visually, daily.

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Film and Media Studies and Digital Studies.
Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

ENG 220 - Literary Analysis

Fox, Campbell, Kuzmanovich

Designed for potential majors. Emphasizes theoretical approaches and critical strategies for the written analysis of poetry, fiction, and drama and/or film. Writing intensive. Required for the major. Students who major in English should complete 220 by the end of the sophomore year. Those who do not meet this deadline must make special arrangements with the Chair.

Satisfies Russian Language and Literature major requirement.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.

Satisfies the Methods requirement for the Gender and Sexuality Studies major in the Literary and Cultural Representations track.

ENG 234 - Beyond the Single Story

“Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. …When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.”  - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This course features in-depth study of a complex text that provides multiple avenues for students to venture beyond the “single story,” direct their own learning and research, and explore new ideas, perspectives, and questions. Its first iteration will focus on Richard Power’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, ‘The Overstory’ (2018).  

Variously described as “an environmental epic,” “an expansive allegory,” and “a gigantic fable of genuine truths,” ‘The Overstory’ tells the story of the “forgotten kinship” between humans and trees, asking us to recognize trees as protagonists whose fates are entangled with our own. Each of the nine main characters has a connection to a particular tree, and in the course of the novel, their individual story lines grow together and cross fertilize, like tree roots. Combining botany, dendrology, mythology, history, technology, ethics, and environmental activism, ‘The Overstory’ provides rich terrain for students to explore topics of interest and connect issues raised in the novel to their own lives, while gaining deeper understanding of the relationship between human and nonhuman worlds.

As they read the novel, students will keep a reading log, which will be syndicated to a centralized course website. They will use tags to locate common themes and issues, and reply to each other’s posts, thereby generating an organically expanding, interconnected, communal response to the novel. The reading logs will enable students to leaf out from the buds of new ideas, one of which they will choose to branch out and to pursue a topic or issue in greater depth through a research, experiential, or investigative project of their own design. Students will also adopt a tree and keep a handwritten journal, and compose a final reflection about their own overstory, in which they envision their ideal relationship to the nonhuman world and identify means and practices for achieving and sustaining it.

Satisfies English major and minor requriement.
Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies Justice, Equality and Community requirement.

ENG 240 - British Literature to 1800

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satifies the Historical Approaches requirement of the English major.
 

ENG 242 - Women’s Work: 21st Century Female Playwrights (=THE 242)

This course provides a close look at work created for the stage by women since 2000. The analysis of plays written and produced in the 21st century will be set in the context of feminist and queer theory which has offered insights into the cultural function of “women’s work.”

Satisfies a requirement in the English major.
Satisfies a requirement in the Theatre major and minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Literary & Cultural Representations Track of the Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Global Literary Theory interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies Justice, Equality and Community requirement.

ENG 245 - Book History, Arts, Culture

This is a course surveying the history, practice, and potentials of “the book.”  Readings and other materials will be historical, literary, and theoretical, and will consider the changing status of the book with a focus from the late 19th century to the present.  Activities are both critical and creative, and will include several short writing assignments and hands-on student projects.

ENG 255 - Educational Linguistics (=EDU 255)

This course will introduce students to fundamental concepts in linguistics and tools for analyzing language in school-based and other instructional settings. Topics will include the structure of human languages, the development of communication, home-school literacy connections, classroom discourse, language diversity in education, language teaching and learning, academic literacy, and educational language policy. Students will complete problem sets, a short analytical paper, and a final research project.

ENG 260 - British Literature since 1800

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies the Historical Approaches requirement for the English major.

ENG 261 - Modern Drama

This course covers a period in time (roughly 1860-1960) that was critical to shaping Western drama as we know it.  As we will see over the course of the semester, cultural conversations about race, gender, labor, justice, war, art, and society that were initiated by dramatists like Boucicault, Ibsen, and Chekhov were carried forward into the twentieth century by artists like Grimké, Treadwell, and Williams.  We’ll start our survey reveling a bit in that great 19th century theatrical form, melodrama, as it was used to fight slavery in The Octoroon.  We’ll then look at how different playwrights experimented with form and content (why was realism considered so dangerous? How did expressionism try to physically embody the tumult of emotions?)  We’ll talk about the aesthetic and cultural contexts in which these plays emerged (and which plays caused riots!), and what they tell us about their societies, their audiences…and us.  Our goal is to complicate our understanding of dramatic history by understanding how these plays were and are not only “great art,” but significant sites for challenge to conventional social and artistic norms that will ultimately feel more familiar to you than not.  And…you might even get a chance to act yourself! 

Satisfies the Historical Approaches requirement of the English major and minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Theatre major and minor.
Satifies a requirement in the Global Literary Theory interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric requirement.

ENG 262 - Bodies at Risk in American Drama

In the first two decades of the 21st century, human existence has been made more precarious by racism, sexism, ableism, and homophobia; war and conflict; global warming; health inequities; and widening social and economic disparities. Contemporary American playwrights have held up a powerful mirror to such inequities, and deployed the real bodies of actors to bring to light the stories of those whose very existence has been placed at risk. In so doing, they do not simply reify simplistic stories of either victimhood or inspirational overcoming. Rather, they assert these stories as a fundamental part of American identity, taking a more complex, nuanced look at what it means to navigate systemic inequity while asserting identity, integrity, and dignity. In this course, we will look at plays from the last two decades of American drama that take inequity and its aftereffects as their main concern. The plays we read take up issues including gender transition; the school-to-prison pipeline; bullying; the institutionalization of disabled people; the immigrant experience, especially that of women; the erasure of people of color; the effects of the loss of heavy industry in rural America; and the lack of universal health care. How does the stage invite us to debate the ethical questions at the heart of such inequities? How does drama not only invite our empathy, but spur us toward the deeper understanding of experiences different from our own that might result in meaningful systemic change? 

Readings may include:  
Christopher Demos-Brown, American Son
Lindsey Farentino, Amy and the Orphans
David Valdes Greenwood, The Mermaid Hour
Amy Herzog, Mary Jane
Stephen Karam, The Humans
Mike Lew, Teenage Dick
Martyna Majok, Cost of Living
Martyna Majok, Queens
Lynn Nottage, Sweat
Antoinette Nwadu, Pass Over
Anna Deavere Smith, Notes from the Field

Satisfies a English major and minor requirement.
Satisfies a Theatre minor requirement.
Satisfies Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor requirement.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing & Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

ENG 271 - Disability in Literature and Art

In this course, we will explore disability as it is depicted in literary and cultural texts, from the canon to disability culture.  These representations are sometimes used metaphorically, as representations of extreme innocence or evil.  Likewise, they might reduce the experience of the disability to a conquerable challenge, or to a fate worse than death.  We will reconsider disability history, question socially defined categories of normalcy and ability, and learn about the presence of disability culture.  Rather than trying to catalogue all the examples of disability in literature, this course seeks to use disability studies as a genesis point and theoretical framework through which to examine several core questions about disability, literature, and the problems and opportunities arising from the intersection of the two.  We will reconsider representations of disability in literature; examine how disability is a culturally constructed category like race, gender, class, and sexuality (and how it intersects with those); study contemporary writing, performance, and art from disability culture; and consider how disability aesthetics can meaningfully contribute to the processes and products of artistic creation.  This course presumes no prior coursework in English and welcomes those from across the disciplines interested in studying the social and cultural experience of disability as a way to inform their own work in the arts and sciences.

Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirements.
Satisfies the Diversity requirement of the English major.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

ENG 272 - Intro Asian American Lit

Staff

What is Asian American literature, and how do we determine its geographical and cultural scope? What is the relationship between Asian American literary aesthetics and political concerns? This course introduces students to the diverse traditions and key debates in Asian American and transpacific writing, paying special attention to historical, social, and political contexts that shape our understanding of literature. Beginning with scholarship that characterize Asian American culture as inherently heterogeneous and capacious, we will explore the coalitional possibilities and incommensurabilities within and beyond Asian American narratives. We will examine key themes pertinent to Asian American literature such as immigration and exclusion, militarism and refugee displacement, colonization, gender, and sexuality. Key authors include: Carlos Bulosan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jhumpa Lahiri, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Thi Bui, Craig Santos Perez, and Annelise Chen.

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement
 

ENG 280 - Mystery and Romance of the West

Although we start with one, this is not a course on the Western. It is a course that concentrates on the West as place, space, idea, and feeling in American literature.  Variously conceived as wilderness full of wild beasts and wild men, a source of immense wealth for the intrepid and the lucky, a site teeming with souls in need of saving as well as opportunities to re-acquire or at least claim to re-acquire innocence, a region where “the dead are not powerless,” a place of rest for the persecuted, the almost metaphysical realm of USA’s Manifest Destiny and the rapacious engine of that destiny, the West, for all its conflicts, is still a landscape of imagination, still a  millennial promise of new physical and spiritual horizons.  The task of this course is to unravel from the larger cultural and historical context the streams of verbal and visual rhetoric by which the West sparked and may still fuel the dreams of such mystery and romance.

The pedagogical methods I intend to use are designed to provide experience in several critical approaches to reading: they include the intensive study of (1) works by canonical writers (along with the attendant problematics of canon formation), (2) major periods of literary history and the question of periodization,  (3) the development of literary types (both characters and genres) as well as (4) the impact of race, sexuality, and gender on the creation and reception of literary works.  While the course does examine constructions of race, gender, self, and nature/wilderness/frontier in the literature of the West, it also gives equal time to moments and events when such constructions are tested and even neutralized. The thematic bridges are evident from the metaphors structuring the subdivisions of the course, but the nuts and bolts are:   (1) Europe’s invention of America  before its actual discovery and the consequences of that invention’s use in national(ist) mythology that accompanied or underwrote various strands of Westward expansion;  (2) racial conflicts created by that expansion;  (3) the  “female” West and the problems of isolated masculinity (“A man’s gotto know his limitations”);  (4) Western humor, especially that of the Southwest;  (5)  the persistence of the motif of regeneration through violence.

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies the Historical Approaches requirement of the English major.

ENG 282 - African American Literature: 18th - 19th Century (=AFR 282)

This course introduces students to some of the literature African Americans produced in the 18th and 19th centuries. Due consideration will be given to the conditions under which African American wrote, the complications attendant upon publication of their work, and the audiences to which the writings were mainly addressed. 

Satisfies the Diversity requirement of the English major.
Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: North America).
Satisfies an elective in the Global Literary Theory interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.